Aperture card duplicator apparatus

ABSTRACT

APERTURE CARD DUPLICATING APPARATUS IN WHICH A MASTER APERTURE CARD IS RECEIVED IN A RECEIVING STATION ADJACENT TO AN EXPOSURE STATION. COPY CARDS ARE FED ONE AT A TIME FROM A STACK ADJACENT THE EXPOSURE STATION, ARE EXPOSED WITHIN THE EXPOSURE STATION AND MOVED THEREAFTER TO THE DEVELOPING STATION AND THEN TO AN EXIT HOPPER. A CIRCUIT RESPONSIVE TO THE PRESENCE OF A MASTER APERTURE CARD OR FILM TO BE COPIED IS PROVIDED TO PERMIT MOVEMENT OF AN EXPOSED COPY CARD FROM THE EXPOSURE STATION TO THE DEVELOPING STATION WITHOUT FEEDING AN ADDITIONAL COPY CARD WHEN THE FILM OR CARD IS NO LONGER IN POSITION TO BE COPIED.

June 27, 1972 H. LAKIN ALPERTURE CARD DUPLICATOR APPARATUS Filed May 5, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. HAROLD LAKIN ATTORNEYS June 27, 1972 H. LAKIN 3,672,771

APERTURE CARD DUPLICA'I'OR APPARATUS Filed May 5, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG 3 CONVEYOR DR'VE CIRCUIT I N VEN TOR.

HAROLD LAKIN BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent Oflice 3,672,771 Patented June 27, 1972 3,672,771 APERTURE CARD DUPLICATOR APPARATUS Harold Lakin, Portola Valley, Califi, assignor to Kleer-Vu Industries, Inc., New York, N.Y. Filed May 5, 1969, Ser. No. 821,758 Int. Cl. G03b 27/30 US. Cl. 355-400 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Aperture card duplicating apparatus in which a master aperture card is received in a receiving station adjacent to an exposure station. Copy cards are fed one at a time from a stack adjacent the exposure station, are exposed within the exposure station and moved thereafter to the developing station and then to an exit hopper. A circuit responsive to the presence of a master aperture card or film to be copied is provided to permit movement of an exposed copy card from the exposure station to the developing station without feeding an additional copy card when the .film or card is no longer in position to be copied.

This invention relates to apparatus for duplicating aperture cards and, more particularly, to a semi-automatic duplicator for aperture cards and its transport and feed mechanism.

Aperture cards, i.e., punched cards used in conjunction with data processing equipment but having a section of film mounted in an aperture in the card, have become widely used. It has become necessary in certain industries to make large numbers of duplicate copies of such aperture cards for distribution within an industrial plant or in an entire industry. The necessity for the manufacture of large numbers of copies of such cards has led to the development of various machines for automatically making any number of copies of an original or master aperture card.

One such machine is disclosed and claimed in patent application Ser. No. 677,576, now Pat. No. 3,535,039 assigned to the same assignee as the present application. In the use of this particular copying machine it is the usual practice to take a stack of master cards and a stack of duplicate cards, i.e., aperture cards within which an unexposed section of film is mounted, and load them into the machine. Prior to the loading of the stack of unexposed duplicate aperture cards, hereinafter called copy cards, may be pre-punched and presorted. This means that the stack of copy cards will contain groups of duplicates corresponding to the exact number of copies to be made of each master card, each of the copy cards to be pre-punched to conform the coded perforations on the copy card to those of the master card.

The present invention was designed to fill the requirement for a machine which would have substantial capability for duplicating master aperture cards without the necessity of being automatic in its operation.

The present invention combines an automatic feed mechanism for feeding individual copy cards from a stack along a path to a master aperture card station where the copy card is exposed and then from there to a developing station and thence to an exit hopper, with manual feed of the aperture cards to be duplicated. In order to accomplish the semi-automatic duplication of copy cards the present invention utilizes a unique single card feeder together with a transport mechanism to carry the copy cards from station to station within the copy machine. There is an aperture card receiving station for placing a master aperture card in position at the exposure station so that the copy card may be placed in registry therewith for exposure and subsequent development of the image in the copy card. The aperture card station is provided with a switch which is actuated when the master card is inserted in place. The design of the switch is such that insertion of the aperture card only in the proper position will actuate the switch and permit feeding of copy cards seriatim from the copy card storage hopper. An alternative design permits use of a roll of film originals which may be placed in position at the receiving station for transfer of images to the copy cards.

The copy card feed mechanism includes a rotatable card feeding element having a resilient surface thereon for contacting the lowermost of a stack of copy cards in the copy card storage hopper and moving the card into position to be picked up by the card conveyor claws attached to an endless chain. The speed of rotation of the rotatable feeding element is such that the copy card removed from the bottom of the stack moves forward at a faster speed than the movement of the claws so that there is virtually no possibility of jamming of the cards as they exit from the hopper and are engaged by the conveyor claws.

The hopper is positioned over the card conveyor so that the claws pass beneath the stack of copy cards. In the preferred embodiment a pair of card support posts is provided at opposite ends of the hopper so that the stack is sloped downward in the direction of the hopper exit gate. The slope of the stack also permits the upper surface of the claws to pass under the card stack without engaging the bottommost card. Directly adjacent the path of the claws in the preferred embodiment there is provided a support button to hold the center portion of the edge of the stack above the top of the claw to preclude jamming in cases in which the entire stack might tend to sag.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective of the copy card feed and transport mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan of the copying machine of the aperture and copying machines within which the feed and transport mechanism is placed showing the various stations for exposure and copying;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section of the copy card storage hopper showing the feed means;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-section of the aperture card receiver; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-section of the card conveyor and deck showing the card retainer and guide rails.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings in which the same reference numerals refer to identical parts in each of the several views, the copy feed and transport mechanism is shown generally in FIG. 1.

The apparatus comprises a deck 10 upon which there is mounted the copy card storage hopper 12, the exposure station 14, and the developing station 16. At the exposure station 14 is a receiving station 18 for receiving the aperture cards to be copied, or alternatively, the roll film for copying of images therefrom.

In order to move the copy cards from the storage hopper 12 along the deck to the exposure station and the developing station and thence to an exit hopper, an endless chain 20 is mounted below the deck at approximately the center thereof. A plurality of conveying elements or claws 22 are attached to the chain and adapted to traverse a slot 24 in the deck to move the copy cards along the deck.

Power to move the endless chain 20 is provided by means of drive motor 26 through pulleys 28 and 30 and drive belt 32 to drive sprocket 34 which is connected by shaft 36 to drive pulley 30.

Movement of the endless chain 20 is controlled by means of a stop motion mechanism shown generally at 38. This mechanism is connected by means of shaft 42 to one of the sprockets 40 upon which the conveyor chain 20 rides. A slotted cam 44 is mounted on shaft 42 and is provided with a single slot or stop groove 46 for engagement by a spring loaded pawl 48.

The pawl is resiliently held against the periphery 50 of the cam 44 by means of a spring 52 which pivots the pawl about its mounting axle 54 so that the pawl will drop into slot 46 when the cam 44 revolves. The pawl 48 is withdrawn from the slot 46 by means of solenoid 56 connected to the pawl by means of a linkage 58.

The cam 44 is mounted on the shaft 42 in such a manner as to permit changing the position of the slot 46 relative to the shaft and thus relative to the claws. The shaft 42 is actually fastened to a hub 41 having a portion cut out to form a dog 43. A pair of screws 45 pass through the outer ring portion 47 of the cam and engage opposite surface of the dog 43. Thus, tightening one screw and loosening the other will change the angular position of the ring 47 relative to the hub 41 and thus of the stop groove 46 relative to the claws. Therefore, the exact stop positions of the claws 22 can always be set when the machine is assembled and when repairs may be necessary to the conveyor chain.

The copy card storage hopper 12 and the copy card feed element are shown in FIG. 3. The storage hopper 12 is defined by vertical side walls 60 within which a stack of copy cards 62 is placed. Inside the bottom of the hopper 12 and mounted on the deck is a pair of copy cards support posts 64 for elevating the rear portion of the copy card stack 62 so that the cards slope downward toward the dicharge slot 66 of the hopper. The support posts have sloping upper surfaces to facilitate removal of the copy card from the bottom of the stack 62. The posts maintain the back end of the stack above the tops of the claws 22. In order to preclude jamming of cards caused by sagging of the center of the stack of cards, there is also provided a support button 65 adjacent the claws, the height of the button being slightly greater than the height of the claws. The height of the discharge slot is partially controlled by one or more gates 68 adjustably mounted on the wall of the hopper, and movable vertically to widen or narrow the exist slot to permit only a single card to exit.

The copy card feed element 70 is a rotatable wheel segment mounted on a drive shaft 72 connected to a drive motor (not separately shown) and having a rubber or other resilient surface 74 on its periphery for engaging the lowermost of the copy cards in the stack 62. Rotation of the copy card feed element 70 in a counter-clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 3 will cause the resilient surface 74 to engage the bottom copy card in the stack and push it forward through the discharge slot 66 and into the copy card receiving slot 76 formed in the deck 10. At this point the newly fed copy card is substantially horizontal and can be engaged by the claws 22 and advanced to the exposure station. An elongate U-shaped copy card retainer 77 is mounted above the path of the claws 22 along the deck, the upper surface of the claws being received in the opening in the retainer. The retainer is mounted in position to prevent the copy cards lifting off 7 the claws and jamming in the mechanism. The speed of rotation of the drive motor for the copy card feed element 70 is selected so that the copy card moves forward at a greater rate of speed than that of the conveyor claws. Thus, they copy card will be resting in the track awaiting engagement by the claw which will advance the copy card to the exposure station.

The aperture card receiver is shown in section in FIG. 4. As has been noted the present invention is a semiautomatic aperture card duplicating apparatus which requires that the master aperture card to be duplicated be inserted manually into the device. This is accomplished at the receiving station which is directly adjacent to the exposure station. The receiving station comprises a receiving tray 78 upon which the master aperture card 80 is placed through a slot (not separately shown) in the cover of the machine. As the master aperture card 80 is moved into place it contacts the actuating arm 82 of sensing switch 84. The actuating arm 82 is rotatably mounted on the switch and is provided with a resilient peripheral surface 86 for frictional engagement by the surface of the aperture card 80 as the card is inserted. The switch 84 is adjustably mounted adjacent the tray 78 so that it may be moved vertically to permit the aperture card 80 to pass between the tray 78 and the resilient contacting surface 86 without jamming and to permit adjustment for varying thicknesses of such cards. The sensing switch 84 is of the type commonly known as a micro-switch, requiring a small angular movement of the arm 82 to be actuated. The control circuitry (not shown in detail) is made responsive to a signal from the switch 84 in order to begin the copying process to be described herein.

An alternative design (not separately shown) places roll film originals at the receiver so that images are transferred from the roll film to copy cards. In such a case the sensing switch 84 would be replaced by other sensing means responsive to the presence of the desired image in place for exposure.

The operation of the copy card feed and transport mechanism of the present invention may best be understood by reference to the schematic plan shown in FIG. 2, in addition to the other figures. A stack of copy cards is placed in the storage hopper 12 ready to be fed along a path from the copy card storage hopper past the exposure station 14 to the developing station 16 and thence to an exit hopper 19 by means of the endless chain 20. When a master aperture card to be duplicated is placed in the receiving station 18 so that the sensing switch 84 is actuated, pressing a control switch (not separately shown) will first actuate the motor rotating the copy card feed element 70. The speed of rotation of the element 70 is such that the lowermost copy card of the stack 62 is engaged by the resilient surface 74 of the element and moved quickly forward through the discharge slots 66 at a rate of speed greater than that of the conveyor chain and claws. Thus, the card will stop against the rearward facing portion 88 of the conveying claws A which had been in position at the exposure station. The actuation of the card feeding element in order to remove the lowermost copy card from the stack 62 is concurrent with energizing of the solenoid 56 to pull the pawl 48 from the slot 46 in the cam 44 of the stop motion mechanism 38. At the same time drive motor 26 for the conveyor chain is energized thus causing the conveyor chain 20 to ad vance the claws along the slot 24 in the deck 10. The solenoid 56 is only momentarily energized so that the pawl 48 after being pulled from the slot 46, rides along the periphery until the cam has made a single rotation and the pawl snaps into the stop groove 46 to stop the conveyor.

Since movement of the conveyor chain 20 begins virtually simultaneously with feeding of a copy card by the feed element 70, the claw B which had been in position at the rear of the storage hopper 12 will move forward and pick up the copy card fed from the hopper. Since the rear of the stack is elevated above the height of the claws 22, claw B will pass under the stack to advance the single copy card to the exposure station while claw A advances an exposed copy card to the developing station 16.

The spacing between the various stations is equal to the spacing between the claws 22 and is set so that a single revolution of the cam 44 will advance the claws a distance exactly equal to the spacing between the stations. Thus, upon energizing of the drive motor 26 as described above a copy card is removed from the hopper 12 and advanced into position at the exposure station 14 where it will be in exact registry with the master aperture cards 80 in position in the receiving station 18. The control circuitry is set so that when the copy card reaches the exposure station and the conveyor stops the exposure lamp is energized to copy the information from the film in the master aperture card onto the film in the copy card.

Assuming that more than one duplicate copy card is to be made, pressing the control switch again will repeat the process of feeding a copy card to the conveying apparatus and will move the copy card which has been exposed to the developing station 16 for development by one of the well known processes used for aperture cards. While the first copy card is being developed the second card is being exposed at the exposure station 14. Upon actuation to bring the third copy card into position at the exposure station the first card is removed from the developing station 16 and moves to the end of the deck "where it drops ofi into the exit hopper 19 shown diagrammatically only in FIG. 2. This process is continued for as many copy cards as are required to be made from the master aperture card in the receiving station 18. The control switch may be replaced by counter means which will permit a preselected number of copies to be set, thus actuating the apparatus automatically for the desired number of copies.

In the present apparatus the circuitry is arranged so that if only one copy card must be duplicated the machine will not feed several copy cards in order to cause the first to exit properly. As has been noted the sensing switch 84 is responsive to the presence of the master aperture card to be duplicated when the master card is placed in position in the receiving station. If after the first copy card is exposed the master aperture card 80 is removed from the receiving station, the actuating arm 82 will swing back into its normal position and signal the circuit that the master aperture card is no longer in position for exposure of its film. The circuit will then respond to actuation of the control switch and advance the copy card sequence from the exposure station 14 to the developing station 16 and then to the exit hopper 19 without actuating the copy card feed element 70. Thus, while the conveyor is moving the first copy card along the path to the developing station and exit hopper no additional copy cards will be fed from the storage hopper 12 until another master aperture card to be copied is put in place in the receiving station and sensed by switch 84.

I claim:

1. In an aperture card copying machine within which copy cards are duplicated from master aperture cards by moving a copy card containing an exposed film into registry with an image bearing master aperture card which has been placed into an exposure station so that the master card and the copy card are superimposed for contact printing and the unexposed film in the copy card may be exposed by radiation through the image of the master aperture card and then developed to bring out the latent image, a copy card feed and transport mechanism comprising: a copy card storage hopper, means for feeding copy cards seriatim from the hopper, means for conveying copy cards along a path from the storage hopper to an exposure station, to a developing station spaced from the exposure station, and then to an exist hopper, said conveying means comprising a plurality of conveying elements mounted on the conveying means for moving the copy cards along the path, said elements spaced apart a distance corresponding to the spacing between the exposure station and the developing station; means for maintaining the copy cards aligned as they traverse along the path; and drive means for the conveying means, said drive means provided with stop means to permit sequential movement of the conveying means a distance corresponding to the spacing between the exposure station and the developing station, and control means for actuating the copy card feeding means only when a master aperture card has been placed in position in the exposure station for copying.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 and including a master aperture card receiving station at the exposure station, said master aperture card receiving station having a sensing switch responsive to the presence of a master card therein for controlling the copy card feeding means so that no copy card is feed from the storage hopper unless a master aperture card is in position in the receiving station for copying.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 and wherein the copy card storage hopper includes an exit gate for a card to be discharged therethrough, a card feeding element mounted below the storage hopper and engageable with the copy cards for advancing a card to the exit gate, said card thereupon engageable by a conveying element for movement to the exposure station.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 and wherein the path along which the copy cards move is defined by a pair of spaced apart guide rails, and including card retainer means adjacent the conveying elements for maintaining the copy cards in engagement with the conveying elements.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 and wherein the copy card storage hopper is fixedly mounted above the conveying means, the conveying elements traversing the underside of the lowermost copy card in the storage hopper, and including a support post at the bottom of the storage hopper for maintaining at least one end of the copy card stack in the hopper elevated above the uppermost portion of the card conveying elements.

6. Apparatus for making duplicate aperture cards comprising: a stationary first hopper for storing unexposed copy cards; an exposure station adjacent said card hopper; a receiver at the exposure station for placing a film to be duplicated in a stationary position to have a copy card juxtaposed with it; a developing station adjacent the exposure station for developing the latent image in a copy card after exposure; a second hopper for storing duplicated copy cards after development; copy card feeding means at the first hopper for seriatim removal of copy cards therefrom; an endless conveyor for intermittently advancing copy cards fed from the first hopper first to the exposure station, then to the developing station and thence to the second hopper; and copy card feeder control means responsive to the presence in the receiver of the film to be copied so that the feeder will operate and copy cards will be fed from the first hopper only when the film is in position in the receiver for duplication, said control means including circut means for continuing intermittent movement of the copy cards carried by the conveyor from the exposure station to the developing station and to the second hopper upon removal of the film from the receiver.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 and wherein the copy card feeding means comprises a rotatable card feeding element having a resilient surface thereon for contacting the lowermost of a stack of copy cards in the first hopper and moving the card out of the hopper, the speed of movement of the card being greater than the speed of movement of the conveyor.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 and wherein the endless conveyor includes control means for permitting stepped movement of the conveyor from station to station so that the copy cards are in registry with each station for ex- References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Rose et al 355-64 Baker 355-100 Smith, Jr., et a1 355-106 Fosse et a1. 355-100 8 Klosky et al. 355-106 Byland 355-109 X Lakin et al. 355-100 Limberger 355-107 Taini et al. 355-109 Clemens et al. 271-41 Lohr 271-35 X Ralston 355-110 10 SAMUEL S. MATTHEWS, Primary Examiner R. M. SHEER, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

